As the New Year begins many will spend time reflecting upon the year prior and setting New Year’s Resolutions for the year to come. Why?

“If its measured it will improve.” – Adam Seever

Sun Dial (Photo credit: Khirol Amir)

The New Year is a measurement of Time. As such, the act of measuring the passing of time causes us to reflect on how our time is spent. We evaluate what we did or did not do in the year past. We then look to the new year ahead of us and vow to do better. We set goals based on our reflection of where we are and where we want to be. In science, the Observer Effect states that the act of observing something changes it. While this is debated within certain sciences by the likes of Heisenberg and Einstein, the business world and human nature make the Observer Effect very real. Making employees aware of business measurement will cause the employees to act differently. Emphasizing the importance of those measurements by tying it to pay multiplies the effect. When it comes to human nature and observing consistent measurements, with few exceptions, “if it is measured it will improve.”

Life Improves

Measuring a year means consistently measuring time. Time is Life. Therefore, the New Year brings with it the measurement of Life, of our life. We then make adjustments to improve that life. Measuring each New Year leads us to improving life.

Improvement is relative to each observer. Some may look back and determine the goal they achieved was not worth the work and that they would be happier not trying so hard. Or they may opt to simply not set goals, because a goal is another form of measurement and they fear failure. Others look at themselves in the mirror and decided that their life would be better if they were healthier. Hence, the first 2 weeks of each New Year are the busiest weeks any given gym will see. Improvement is aligned to each individual’s ideals.

In the end, each goal we set requires time. If we choose to set no goals the time will pass and we will once again be reminded of our time spent a year from now. Each New Year measures our time. Time is limited by life. I implore you to consider this as you set your New Year’s resolutions. Each moment is life and death. We gain another moment of life as we approach an ever pending death. Choose what is worth living for. Know what is worth dying for. Invest time in both, for you are doing so each moment. A year from now you will once again observe your standing in life. Choose to make each year as a whole better than the last.

Happy New Year to all.

If you check out the search terms that are being used to find your WordPress blog you may come across this phrase “encrypted_search_terms”. Why? Has your site been hacked? Or are you a sneaky SEO that has been hiding something and you’ve been caught by Google. If you are worried about this term showing up in your wordpress dashboard read on.

WordPress (Photo credit: Adriano Gasparri)

Encrypted_Search_Terms is now my all time biggest traffic term!

It is nice to know what people are finding your site for, so I keep track using wordpresses traffic tools. “Christmas Lights Ditto” has been one of my best search terms ever, but it and others were just passed by “encrypted_search_terms”. But it’s not that I rank for “encrypted_search_terms”, it’s because the search terms the googler searched are actually being encrypted. If you use Google Analytics you will find these terms labeled, “Not Provided”. Per Google it is only going to effect about 10% of your traffic. That was the stat they gave when they first launched this encryption, “to protect the user.” But there are many that report this impact is far greater than 10% and that it is only expected to grow.

Should I be worried about “encrypted_search_terms” showing up on my dashboard?

The term showing up does not indicate anything about your site. You are most likely not being found for that term. This term is now showing up for everyone using WordPress’s site tracking. If you care about knowing how you are being found, then yes you should be a little more than worried about this. Google is taking away search data. If you have been trying to watch your search terms trends then this will be a problem. Your data from year to year will now be flawed, especially if the percentages continue to change.

Here are a few more sources for you to really dive into this discussion:

Can I get this data back?

No. Sorry, but there is no real solution for you to get the data back. You can run analysis on which pages are being seen most frequently and make inferences as to what terms brought them to those pages. You can pay for pay-per-clicks to find terms that may become hidden. You can ask users to share the data. But there will be no going back to the days that Google shared openly with the webmaster this information.

German Pancakes
By Thomas Ballantyne,
June 13, 2012If you have never tried German Pancakes then you are missing something divine. Often eaten for breakfast, German pancakes are a delicious way to start the day.Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10-15 minutes
Yield: 1 Cake

Among those names were Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and Ebay. None of these have actually closed their sites for the day, but a few are voicing some protest on their site. Other big name websites, like WordPress, Reddit, and Wikipedia have stepped up to the plate. Here are screen shots of websites protesting the “Stop Online Piracy Act”.

WordPress

I actually found WordPress.com to have the more unique and creative protests. Imagine how many wordpress blogs could be in danger of SOPA regulations. In fact, this entire blog could be shut down for even using a screen shot of the wordpress homepage. Clearly wordpress has not blacked out their entire site due to SOPA, as this is a wordpress.com blog, and I am personally grateful they did not.

WordPress.org also strikes in opposition of SOPA. Although at the bottom of the page you can find a link back to the old wordpress.org page.

Amazon

Screen Shot of Amazon Homepage 1-18-2012

In case you missed Amazon’s protesting efforts…

So look again and you will see a small box in the top right hand corner labeled “Reasons to oppose or modify SOPA.” Amazon is walking a fine line here as many authors may have reasons to support SOPA.

Google

Google Homepage SOPA Protest

No doodle from Google in protest of SOPA. The google logo still appears on the google maps vertical, but does not appear in google’s other vertical searches. The link on google’s home page takes you to their page dedicated to protesting the movement and includes the following nifty PDF. < click the image to download it >

Surprisingly YouTube shows nothing in opposition of SOPA.

Wikipedia – Biggest Protester

Homepage of Wikipedia in Protest to SOPA - 1/17/2012

Very compelling message by Wikipedia, a site built upon FREE information. They also implement a great call to action to help push phone calls to “your representatives.” Their goal is to melt Washington D.C. phone lines. Worthy attempt. Although wikipedia did not have a complete blackout, and they are employing a rather sneaky redirect. Although I assume that Google will most likely ignore this black hat tactic. You will notice that the above page loads first then the redirect loads on top of that page. My guess is that Wikipedia understands the damage that could occur to their SEO should they show the search engines a bunch of duplicate content and/or pages down. And if you really need Wikipedia to do your homework then try http://simple.wikipedia.org.

Non Protesting Sites as of Today:

Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Ebay have nothing on their homepages in opposition of SOPA. Bing announced it’s protest, but nothing on Bing shows them as protesting. And while Godaddy was once listed as a supporter, they have nothing on their website going either way.

Perhaps it’s because the bill is nearly dead at this time, but with the exception of Wikipedia and Reddit, I feel that the protesting websites have failed to actually “BLACK OUT”, and their protests are weak. As a business, I can understand the actual costs involved in shutting down for a day. Google would loose millions if it closed it’s doors for one day. Wikipedia has the luxury of being a Non-Profit, so no money will be lost. As for Godaddy, they are smart for staying out of the political heat.

Feel free to add any additional sites in protest to the comments below.

I have received a new spam letter from Paul Schmitt with Article Stars. “Below are the two best SEO WordPress Plugins out there for your SEO needs.” … and something about targeted keywords, and Google auto pilot plug-in. And very sneaky… using the “Schmitt” name to get that mental name association with google. FYI, Mr. Schmitt, you are messing with the pest control guy… and you sir bug me.

Grandma always says… “If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.”

Now when building a link you get the option to simply link back to one of your articles on wordpress. Good move wordpress. This pest control guy gives this 2 thumbs up! We like simple and we like links!

And this is the super ninja’s kicking off the Red Carpet after party… Plzzzz.

If you like that move…

well you probably don’t, so never mind.

Summary: Wordcamp Phoenix started pretty early for some of us… 5:30am if you had to drive from the outskirts of Phoenix AZ down to Chandler. Here is a brief photo recamp using photos provided by Thos003, me, your local pest control guy. From live Angry Birds to Microsoft apologizing about Internet Explorer 8… it was a fun filled day… And a fantastic night.

All in a Wordcamp days worth of work form you Phoenix pest control guy.